Apple has been ordered by the UK’s Court of Appeal to issue a new acknowledgement that Samsung did not copy the design of the iPad.
The Cupertino-based company published the original acknowledgement on its website last week, but many noticed it was less than apologetic.
Apple has now been ordered to remove the “untrue” and “incorrect” statement from its website within 24 hours and must post the revised acknowledgement within 48 hours.
Apple was ordered to post the acknowledgement on its website and in several national newspapers and magazines after Samsung was found not to have infringed Apple’s design patents. A judge said the iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab could not possibly be confused for each other as Samsung’s products were not “cool enough.”
The original acknowledgement made reference to court cases in other countries, such as Germany, where Samsung has been found guilty of infringing Apple patents, something which the iPhone maker said had created the “impression that the UK court is out of step with other courts.”
“While the UK court did not find Samsung guilty of infringement, other courts have recognised that in the course of creating its Galaxy tablet, Samsung wilfully copied Apple’s far more popular iPad,” said the statement.
Apple’s request for 14 days to replace the acknowledgement was rejected by the Judge, who said he couldn’t understand why the new statement could not be posted at the same time as the old one was taken down. The new acknowledgement must also mention the “inaccurate” comments made.
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Well good for the British courts, I say. I'm heartily fed up of the patent battles we see in the computing industry.
Just imagine if Ford had patented cars with four wheels, or the use of rack and pinion for steering, or if the Wright Brothers had patented the use of a petrol engine for powering an aircraft!
The only ways to stop this nonsense will be to make it harder to patent minor changes by tightening patent law and change the penalties from ineffective damages payments to embarrassing notices.
I'd increase the length of time for the notice and keep increasing it until Apple shows some respect for the courts. I'd also now require a much more prominet link on Apple's UK homepage.